Murphy's law

[Diva Q]

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright until you hear them speak.

2. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

3. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

4. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

5. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

6. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting
something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

7. If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would
be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time. On a hill. In the fog.

8. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

9. The things that come to those who wait, will be the things left by
those who got there first.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and
he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

11. A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

12. The shinbone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

13. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

14. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12
people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

 

[boar_d_laze]

I like Diva's examples.

Ed Murphy was a biometrics engineer working on the rocket-sled accelaration tests at (what later became) Edwards AFB in the late forties and early fifties. There is doubt among historians about what Murphy actually said; whether he was attempting to direct the finger of blame away from himself and onto a subordinate; or just sort of musing philosophically after a chimp had been run down the track with enormous trouble and at great expense, and no measurements were forthcoming because the meters were wired ground to plate. Murphy's offspring inclined toward the philosophical while his commanding officer suggested deflection.

Supposedly the first published formulation of Murphy's Law was "If it can go wrong, it will," but pretty much everyone agrees that Murphy said something different relating to the human propensity to screw up.

A more existential view might be phrased, "No matter how bad things look, you can always make them worse." I enjoy the broader and no-fault, "Innate Perversity of the Universe Theory" which subsumes Murphy's Law -- no matter how it's phrased.

Do you also wonder why, if we share 98% of our DNA with bonobo, they're so much smarter?

Rich